bearisgray

Charm squares can be washed.

Soak them in hot water in a large bowl, sink, big kettle) with a drop or two of detergent.

Drain them in a colander (think cooking spaghetti)

Put back in container. Rinse. Drain. Rinse. Drain.

Spin out in salad spinner. Spread out on a towel to dry.

If you don't have a salad spinner, roll them in a towel - and then spread them out to dry on a dry towel.

This is the tedious way - but it does minimize fraying.

I washed some 5 inch squares. One of them ended up about 4.25 x 4.5 inches.

I use Warm and Natural batting. That got soaked in hot water and then dried in the machine.

(Don't know how I will do it with this front loader machine in this house)

I prefer to get the shrinkage out of the way before I start cutting.

But - there are people that swear that they get no shrinkage. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, because most of my fabrics did shrink during the washing process.


Wash or not wash. Suit yourself. But I KNOW almost every cotton fabric I have washed (thousands of them - Really!) shrinks. Some - not much. Some, a lot. i usually can't tell ahead of time which fabrics will do what.

I prefer my table runners and place mats to lay flat.